Leadership, Community And Values Initiative
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Following Your Life's Passion
Mark Howe, Research Engineer, Nuclear Physics, and two-time Distinguished Staff Award nominee, talks about taking a bold path and finding professional passion.
In May 1961, by chance, I saw the launch of Alan Shepard’s sub-orbital flight on TV. I proceeded to learn all I could about the space program and decided that I wanted a career in science. I received a Master of Science degree in Physics in 1979 and ended up working as an Engineer at the Boeing Company.
I was relatively happy at Boeing, but I always felt like I would like to be involved with projects on a more fundamental level. One day a colleague pointed me to an advertisement for a two-year job appointment building a particle accelerator at the University of Washington--a job he thought I should look into. After some soul-searching I decided to take the leap, applied for it, and an offer was extended.
To date I have been at the UW for almost twenty-three years and continue to find it a fascinating place to work. The risky decision--to leave a relatively secure job at Boeing for a job at the UW that would likely end in two years--turned out to be the best decision of my life. I am passionate about what I do here and can’t imagine working.
